Rusty 510 floor pans - Repair & replace

[Draker]

I had time today to clean up the floor on the 2 door I just bought. Initial inspection of the floors when I bought it yielded solid floors. I stabbed them with a screw driver when I was inspecting it and they seemed solid. I guess I just missed the soft spots! lol

 

Anyway, this is what it looked like when I went to look at.

 

 

 

This was a rust free car when the PO bought it. It developed a water leak at some point... I think I found where it was coming in at...

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what it looked like today before I started.

 

 

 

 

 

I got to work on it got it all cleaned up and wire brushed. Its not perfect but I just wanted to see what I was dealing with. There is probably a few more soft spots that I haven't found yet but this is what I'm working with.

 

Drivers Floor

 

Drivers side rear

 

Passenger Front

 

 

Passenger side rear.

+5 internets if you can spot the rust in this one. ^^

 

 

Under the back seat

Under back seat

 

Under back seat, drivers side

 

 

Under back seat by front mounting rail.

 

 

 

 

[Draker]

I am looking for some suggestions. Looks like the front passenger pan is toasted, I'll probably be replacing the whole thing. But the other spots I might be able to just patch. I'm not sure the extent of the rust though. I was attacking this with a wire brush on a drill. I will need to either spend some more time with the drill or find another tool to get this even cleaner. At this point its hard to tell what is good metal since the metal is still discolored.

 

Also I am looking for posts that show members replacing or repairing their floor pans.

[Draker]

I think the only good thing about rusty floors... It makes removing the sound insulation a snap! ( Came out in one piece! ) FML.

 

[DatWifey]

Ours aren't quite  to the extent of some of yours, but similar in other areas.  Here's a picture-book of how we're currently going about it.

 

We got this welder around the new year.  Brodster had some experience with welding in high school, and I had zero.  So far though, this has been working out great.

 

This was our driver's side front floorpan

 

 

 

We started cutting with an airtool cut-off wheel

 

Brody was able to pick up some 18 gauge sheetmetal at a local sheetmetal place.  So, we traced the holes we cut out with some cardboard, and then cut out pieces, and shaped it to be welded back in

 

 

 

And, started tacking in..... since you can't actually run steady beads because you'll blow through

 

 

The back seat pan was a bit more of a pain in the ass since it angles and shit.  But, lucky for us, the part we had to cut out is doable to do only small angled sections.

 

I wanted to cut this as straight as possible  to make the cutting of the patch  as  easy  as possible.  So, here's how I started it :)

 

 

 

 

The other small section is spot welded to the frame, so we'll drill those out and do that piece separately.... (ie. I'm waiting for Brodster to finish up this quarter of grad  school to do it so that I don't fuck up his car :rofl: )

 

And here's how the patch sits  as of now.  It's  getting tricky in the corner with some flexing needed, but it's  coming along well so far.  ps...this piece is my first weld job ever.   It looks kind of  shitty, but I really don't care since it will live under a  seat.  I'm proud of myself :D

 

Hope this is somewhat helpful for you.

[Draker]

Thanks for the info! I've got the Eastwood 175. I just got it and did a few test welds. I'm thinking I might have a wire feed issue with it though. Seems as if the wire slips in the roller.. It's .035 flux. I'm going to get a tank and some other wire and see if it feeds any better. It's brand new so.. if all else fails I'll call Eastwood. I know there is another feed roller you can get with 'teeth' in the groove. It might have other issues though.

 

Anyway, thanks for posting those pictures. It looks like you got surfaces a lot cleaner than mine. I'm going to have to get another wire wheel or something and attack this thing some more. I went over it pretty quick to see where the damage was but I think there is more rust hiding.

[BJW's FiveTen's]

Id recommend a tank and non flux wire. Much cleaner welding. Good luck its not to bad doing floors in these little cars.

[Draker]

Yeah, I've got a bit of experience with MIG. None with flux. I've taken welding classes using full MIG. I'm going to look into getting a tank when I get paid. I need it to figure out if my welder is having issues or if it's user error.

 

As far as the pans go.. it doesn't look too bad but I was just looking for some techniques. I'll be patching some area's and replacing at least one entirely. I'm going to dive in a little deeper and clean it up more.

[BJW's FiveTen's]

Best results come from good surface prep as well. Spending an extra few minutes cleaning will really produce much better Finnish. Also be careful don't use brake clean. Burning that stuff is bad news

[DatWifey]

You could also try going the route of replacing the entire floorpan in one, since they look pretty nasty overall, with the ones already out there on the market.  Might be quicker and easier in the longrun.  

 

[izzo]

^^^ I've heard from a few people those are pretty dope.  Good quality.  Expensive for a typical ratsuner, but you get what you pay for and this is def worth the investment.

[DatWifey]

It's actually pretty dense material from the feel of it.  We have that one (driver's side), but didn't end up using it because it wasn't really necessary since the floors weren't as bad as we initially thought.  

[Draker]

Are those the Aussie pans?

[DatWifey]

No, it's from Mark Grimsley (in VA area).  I found this post with the guy's info.  It's old, but could still be good contact info.  If you're interested, my husband had ours listed up for sale here a while back for $50.  I can check with him to see if he still wants to let it go.  We're not using it, so I don't see why he wouldn't be willing to part with it.

[Draker]

Thank you for the offer. Let me see clean these floors a bit more and see if I need to replace that specific pan.

[DISLEXICDIME]

The cool thing about marks pans is if you ask him he can leave exra metal to go up the curv

[SupDoc]

I'll be tuned into this thread to see how it goes.  Eventually, I'll be replacing at least 3 of the 4 floorpan sections in my car.  These are the ones that I've been considering:

 

http://www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=17682

[Draker]

I'll be tuned into this thread to see how it goes.  Eventually, I'll be replacing at least 3 of the 4 floorpan sections in my car.  These are the ones that I've been considering:

 

http://www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=17682

 

Those are nice. I think they are a little thinner than a few others that are on the market though. Not sure though.. I don't see any reviews of those ones either. I will probably be patching what I can first.

[edekalil]

I am in need of some floor pans for the 510 2 door in my garage all apart.

 

 

Eddie

[Draker]

Oohh.. those are ugly!

[datsun 160J SSS]

looks good

[nismosilvia]

I would use some ospro to treat the rust before you seal it with primer.

[Draker]

Thanks for the info.

 

I'll probably treat it with a die grinder first.. then follow up with some sort rust dissolver/encapsulator.

[nismosilvia]

I would do ospro then the grinder why do I say this? Well the ospro hardens up the rusted metal so in the long run you will save more metal and then just weld over it or grind it like you said. You will be suprized what the treatment alone will do. But your car do what you want

[Draker]

 

I would do ospro then the grinder why do I say this? Well the ospro hardens up the rusted metal so in the long run you will save more metal and then just weld over it or grind it like you said. You will be suprized what the treatment alone will do. But your car do what you want

[nismosilvia]

Exactly what I was saying... Ospro everything that's rustly on the floor around that hole and then weld in your patch. In the amount of time it takes to make a post you could have smeared that stuff around the floor walk away for 10min drink a beer and when you return it would be done.